Received: from demon.corp.portal.com (demon.corp.portal.com [156.151.1.10]) by hobo.online.portal.com (8.6.10/8.6.5) with ESMTP id OAA01544; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:19:48 -0700 Received: (pccop@localhost) by demon.corp.portal.com (8.6.11/8.6.5) id OAA01582; Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:18:01 -0700 Date: Mon, 16 Sep 1996 14:18:01 -0700 From: Portal users and files Message-Id: <199609162118.OAA01582@demon.corp.portal.com> To: shell_users@corp.portal.com.online_users@corp.portal.com.ip_users@corp. portal.com.uucp_users@corp.portal.com Subject: URGENT -- PORTAL SERVICES TRANSITIONING TO OUR LOYAL PORTAL CUSTOMERS: After more than 10 years of providing Internet access services to our customers, we have decided to terminate our Internet access service and focus our efforts exclusively on Portal Infranet, our customer management and billing platform. Since introducing Infranet in May, Portal has been extremely successful, signing up customers such as Sprint, VeriSign and Mpath. In order to focus on building the Infranet business to its potential, we have chosen to terminate our Internet access service on September 30, 1996. However, to ensure that you continue to receive the service you have come to expect from us, we have negotiated a special promotional offer for you with Sprint's new Internet access service, Sprint Internet PassportSM. With Sprint Internet Passport, you will receive free Internet access service until October 31. Sprint Internet Passport has two pricing plans to choose from including unlimited access for $19.95 per month or $1.50 per hour with no minimum or maximum usage requirements. In addition, you will receive a free software kit that includes everything you need to register and access the Internet. Sprint Internet Passport is available for Microsoft Windows '95 and Windows 3.1 users. It includes Netscape Navigator 2.0 and operates at modem speeds up to 28.8 kbps per second which is twice as fast as the highest speed available through Portal's service. Additionally, Sprint Internet Passport has a dedicated web site that offers on-line customer assistance as well as e-mail, news, and search and directory services offered in conjunction with Lycos, Infoseek, Netscape and c/net. Portal and Sprint have teamed up to ensure that your transition to Sprint Internet Passport is as smooth as possible. Sprint has established a toll-free customer service number specifically for Portal customers and has dedicated customer service agents available to assist you. The number to call is 1-800-953-5000. Once you have established your Sprint Internet Passport account, Portal will forward e-mail from your existing Portal account to your new Sprint Internet Passport e-mail address through December 1, 1996. To set up your e-mail forwarding, you need to send an e-mail message including your full name, Portal e-mail address and new Sprint e-mail address to Portal at emailforward@portal.com Sprint Internet Passport is currently dial-up Internet access service only and does not offer Shell services, Web-page hosting, On-Line Services or UUCP accounts. However, Sprint is dedicated to providing first-class Internet access services and may offer certain of these services in the future. At this time, we cannot offer a special transition for these services. We encourage you to make the transition to Sprint Internet Passport as soon as possible so that you can take advantage of the special Portal promotion which expires on October 31, 1996. We will permanently terminate our Portal services on September 30, 1996. We appreciate your long-standing patronage of Portal's service and the loyalty you have shown us over the years. Should you have any questions regarding your transition to Sprint Internet Passport please e-mail us at isptrans@portal.com or call 1-888-343-4429. The Portal Information Network -- Date: Mon, 16 Sep 96 20:51:36 PDT Message-ID: <9609162051.2.5636@cup.portal.com> X-Origin: The Portal System (TM) The AmigaZone will live on. I will have more news for you all shortly. Please stay tuned.. Regards, Harv Laser Amiga Zone Sysop -- Date: Wed, 18 Sep 96 12:23:38 PDT Message-ID: <9609181223.1.16406@cup.portal.com> X-Origin: The Portal System (TM) Greetings and apologies in advance if you get this letter twice. I am trying to reach everyone I can as best I can in the time I have to do it. -- ** HOT FLASH ** :) The Amiga Zone now has a new home page on the Web. We've registered a domain name and you'll now find it at: http://www.amigazone.com We're moving the Amiga Zone, after Portal closes, to CalWeb Internet Services. I'll have more news and a formal press release for everyone shortly. Meantime, I would hope that as many of you as possible will join CalWeb asap. You can phone them at 1-800-509-9322, or 1-916-641-9320, and signup is available 24 hours a day! Say "The Amiga Zone sent me!" and signup is FREE! They take plastic or will even invoice you. The monthly fee is $19.95, the same as Portal's. We've tried to provide one of, if not the best Amiga online resource in the world here on Portal for the last five years. Portal's shutdown of the online system is entirely beyond my control. I wish we had had more notice, but that was not to be. It's sad, but we'll carry on. The Amiga Zone will reopen on CalWeb in October, with a new look and many new features that people have wanted for years. We'll try make the transition as easy, painless, and fun as possible but WE NEED YOU THERE WITH US! I know a lot of you have joined local providers. You can use that local account to telnet to calweb.com with no hourly fees. CalWeb is only $19.95/month, the same price you've been paying Portal. Please join us on CalWeb. We need you and we're counting on you. We have lots of exciting stuff planned. Just yesterday I received a huge box of Amiga CD-ROMs (good stuff, like LightROM-3!) for Amiga Zone prizes. I have more contest prizes on the way to me too. If your web page is on Portal you can move it to CalWeb quite easily too. That's what we did with the Zone home page already. You'll get 10 meg of free shell/web page storage there when you join. And CalWeb can register a custom domain name, like they did for the Zone, for an extra charge. Again, I'll have more news in the coming days before Portal closes. PLEASE CALL CALWEB AND JOIN TODAY AND STICK WITH THE AMIGA ZONE! Best regards, Harv Laser Amiga Zone Sysop -- Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1996 15:37:10 -0700 From: Harv Laser Subject: URGENT AMIGAZONE PRESS RELEASE - SPECIAL PRIZES! [As a special sign-up incentive to all you current (soon to be former) Portal / Amiga Zone members.. rather than wait till we move to CalWeb to hold contests to give away this steaming heap of CD prizes that I just received from Graphic Detail, I'm going to pull out ten of them for immediate signup prizes. This offer will not be made to people who read this press release in Amiga Report or on the Amiga Web directory.. where it has just been sent. So sign up for CalWeb NOW and on the evening of Sept. 29th, we'll hold a special online Amiga Zone Chat ("go chat;2" on the online system) and ten of you who have joined CalWeb will get a free CD worth up to $50 to thank you for hanging with the Zone! How's that :) -- Sept. 20, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THE AMIGA ZONE MOVES FROM PORTAL TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES ------------------------------------------------------------ For over ten years the Amiga Zone has been an online resource, home, community, oasis, for Amiga owners. For over ten years I've made my living running the Zone and supporting Amiga users all over the USA, Canada, and the world. Five years ago when American People/Link pulled their own plug, we had to find the Zone a new home and we found a good one on the Portal Online System. Well, it's happened again.. Portal has informed all of its customers that its ten year history as an online service and Internet provider is coming to an end on Sept. 30, 1996. This is very sad, it's short-notice, and the decision is completely out of my control, but it's also irreversible. Portal is changing its entire business plan from being an ISP to selling a big-bucks accounting system to other online services. So be it. It's sad, but like I said, the Zone went through this before and now we'll go through it again, and come out the other side better and wiser. ===================================================== THE AMIGA ZONE IS MOVING TO CALWEB INTERNET SERVICES. ===================================================== CalWeb (http://www.calweb.com) is a two year old Internet provider located in Sacramento, CA. It has a good sized customer base, and very knowledgeable support staff. It's also run by a long time Amiga owner who has been a friend of mine for many years. The world of modeming has changed much in the last ten years. In 1985 you had very few choices and you had 1200 baud. These days, everyone and his dog has an ISP running and a web page But the vast majority of them don't know an Amiga from a hole in the ground, and could care less about Amiga owners. CalWeb is different because it's the new home of the Amiga Zone. In October 1996, a new custom front-end menued system will be added to CalWeb to host the Zone. It'll have features for Zone users that neither Plink nor Portal ever had nor were they willing to add. The tradition of a friendly online Amiga community, run by long time Amiga owners, users and lovers will continue. Message bases, huge file libraries (we plan to move over the 20,000+ files we have on the Zone on Portal to CalWeb, MANY of which you'll never see on Aminet or anywhere else), live nightly chats, vendor support and our famous prize contests will continue. We've given away tens of thousands of dollars worth of Amiga prizes in the last ten years. No one else even comes close. I urge any and all of you who were on Plink, or who are now on Portal or who may have left Portal.. or even if you were never on either but used or still use another online service to join CalWeb for the Amiga Zone. I personally promise you the best online Amiga community we can possibly build. You will not be disappointed. -- CalWeb has arranged a special signup offer for you! Call 1.800.509.9322 or 1.916.641.9320 or telnet to calweb.com, login as "guest", and follow the prompts. You can join CalWeb for US$19.95 flat, a month. CalWeb takes major credit cards or you can establish a monthly invoiced account if you don't have plastic. The signup is FREE. To get this deal you must say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME" when you call or signup online. -- I hope to see lots of you join CalWeb. You can telnet into it from anywhere for no hourly charges at all. Your $19.95/mo fee covers everything and also gets you ten meg of storage which includes hosting your own personal web page. Naturally, when the Zone opens there, you'll have unlimited use of all of its features and areas. Never a "money meter" clock to worry about. Your personal or business CalWeb Web pages are maintained by you via FTP. It's pretty slick. You can make a net connection to the server with any Amiga FTP client, put your files onto it, the permissions are automatically set (no "chmod-ing" required!) and flip to your running browser and see the changes instantly. The Amiga Zone's new page is already up at: http://www.amigazone.com running on CalWeb's server. Ckeck it out! Please feel free to write to me at harv@amigazone.com or harv@cup.portal.com if you want more information. Remember to say "THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME!" when you join. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Please plan to join us in the Amiga Zone on CalWeb! Regards, Harv Laser harv@amigazone.com harv@cup.portal.com http://www.amigazone.com -- Date: Fri, 20 Sep 1996 12:00:33 -0700 From: Harv Laser Message-Id: <199609201900.MAA09940@jobe.shell.portal.com> Subject: HOT! PLEASE READ.ME! AMIGAZONE NEWS! PLEASE READ.ME! SAVE ME! DO NOT THROW ME AWAY! Hi. This is Harv Laser. This is my personal plea to you, and a bit of discussion about your money. I know you've gotten a lot of email recently and you might be confused. Upset. Pissed off. Hey, so am I. Portal gave all of us two weeks' notice. I got the same two weeks' notice all of you did. What's different about me is that I earn my living running the Amiga Zone. This letter is about our AmigaZone moving to CalWeb.. and it's especially directed at those of you who use SprintNet or a Compu$erve number to get here to Portal. -- I know it's easy for me to tell you how to spend your money. That's what advertisers do to all of us every day. But please read on! You've known me for years. Here on Portal, earlier on Plink, and on Usenet, and in all the magazine articles and reviews I've written. I hope I have a reputation for being a straight-shooter and telling you the truth. I'm not trying to sell you any bogus scheme here. No make.money.fast. This is for real, folks, and coming from me, I hope you believe it. I would not try to pull a fast one on you. I've gotten a lot of email from current Portal users that ask me "Hey Harv, I use Sprintnet or a local Compu$erve number to get to Portal now.. does CalWeb have these? Or what do I do? How will I log in? How much will it cost me? I want to stay with the Amiga Zone but is this going to cost me a fortune?" Okay.. listen up here because this is the best way I can explain it to you: If you now use Sprintnet to get to Portal, you pay $2.50/hour to use it. (MUCH MUCH more during the daytime). If you use a local CI$ number, you pay $2.95/hr. So let's round-off and say you're paying about $3/hr to use either of these. That's fair, right? If you're on Portal just 7 (seven) hours a month or more, that's $20 in connect time fees. Seven times $2.50 or $2.95 is about $20. Seven hours isn't much. It's nothing. It's less than two hours a week. Okay - you can take that $20 you're *already* paying and buy an account with a local Internet provider. Any SHELL account will do. A lot of providers are PC-oriented. They want to sell you SLIP/IP accounts with a custom front end software GUI that you can't run on Amiga. Netcom is a huge Internet provider, and they sell shell accounts, and they have local dial-in numbers all over the country. They're pushing their "Netcruiser" thing but that's an IBM custom GUI tht you can't use on an Amiga. They don't even make a Mac version so you can't use Emplant or Shapeshifter with Netcruiser. But they also sell Shell accounts, even though they don't push them much anymore. I personally have a Netcom shell account and have for years. It costs me $17.50 a month for unlimited use. Okay, so you get a local dialup shell account with Netcom, or whoever, then you log into that local account, and just "telnet calweb.com" at a shell prompt and bang, you're on CalWeb. And you're on but not just for 7 or 10 or 20 hours a month.. you're on FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT TO STAY ON EACH MONTH. All you can eat. As much as you wish to use. Unlimited usage. NO Hourly fees. That's the economics of this thing. You won't be paying any more and for many people you'll end up paying A LOT LESS!! The $20 or more that you've been throwing at Portal for Sprintnet or CI$net will stretch to hundreds of hours a month if you want it to. You don't have to watch the ticking money clock. You won't get any more huge bills from Portal. You'll be able to log on more, and more often.. download more files. Join our live chats, etc. etc. AOL has six million customers who pay them $2.95 an hour to use that silly service with its slow interface. Made slow on purpose so people stay on longer and spend more money. Hard to believe, isn't it. Are they all completely nuts? That's how AOL is making billions of dollars. Get a local provider shell account. Telnet into calweb.com for the Amiga Zone and you're back with us and probably saving money. Buy your Amiga some new toys. Think about it. And if you have any questions I haven't answered here, feel free to phone me at 310-378-6746 anytime and I'll be glad to explain, talk, chat, and help you make up your mind. If I get enough of you on CalWeb quickly, I'll keep my salary, and won't have to go out and flip burgers for a living. The Amiga Zone will carry on, bigger an better than ever, and you'll get online Amiga Support like you've had here on Portal for five years, and I GUARANTEE IT. Thanks!! Harv -- Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 21:17:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: AmigaZone News - here's how you can help! Greetings.. I designed a 2 page flyer which will be snail mailed to all in the Amiga Zone registered user list (hopefully your correct address was on file at Portal, or you have not moved in the last year so the P.O. will forward to you). I have uploaded this flyer to the Amiga Zone New Uplaods. "go amiga;0;0;0;p t e" or "go 4842.3.72;p t e" to get to it. The filename is CALZONEFLYER.LHA. Inside the LHA file are two postscript files. One was made with Final Writer, the other with ProPage. They contain exactly the same text with a graphic. Only the fonts are slightly different. Download the file, unpack it, dump the .ps files to a Postscript printer and voila. Now what I'm asking here is that any of you who are members or officers of an Amiga User Group, or have a dealer nearby, if you could please printout either flyer (I don't care which you use as long as you get both page 1 and 2), xerox off some and hand them out at your user group or put some at your local dealer. This is one of the BEST ways you can help spread the word about Portal's closing and the Amiga Zone's relocation to CalWeb. You will have my eternal gratitude if you can do this, and if you do, please let me know, whenever you get a chance, what user group or dealer(s) got the flyers. The flyer contains the Amiga Zone press release which I issued the other day (and which is also on our web site at www.amigazone.com, and in our message bases, and in the new uploads as well) along with the Amiga Zone web page main graphic (designed last year by DrGandalf) and some other explanatory text. It should answer most any questions folks might have. My goal is to get the word out on this situation to as many Amigoids as I possibly can, in as many ways as I can possibly do it. Your help would be eternally appreciated! -- Also, I wil have another mass email shortly about our goal to continue our live, nightly chats while the Zone transitions to CalWeb. After Portal shuts down, there will be no more online system to chat in, and we'll be holding nightly chats on IRC (The Internet RElay Chat) at the usual times to keep things alive. More news on that shortly. Keep the faith and thanks for helping me to spread the word. (And if any of you have user groups but no way to print out a postscript file, email me and let me know what format you'd prefer to have the flyer in and I will do my best to accomodate you!) Harv harv@cup.portal.com harv@amigazone.com www.amigazone.com -- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 12:43:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: PortalX 1.70 is now free to all I've just put the last version of PortalX by SteveTibbet, V1.70, into the public Amiga Zone new uploads on the online system at "go 4842.3.72" then "p t e" (page to end) to get to the newest stuff. You are free to use PortalX 1.70 as much as you like until Portal shuts down on 30 Sept. 1996. Those of you who never registerd PortalX with SteveX, if you are feeling any pages'o'guilt may of course send him any contribution you wish. PortalX was designed to make mail and usenet and file gathering on Portal quite painless for Amiga owners, and it did its job very well. The 1.70 version had numerous enhancements and bug fixes over the last 1.60 version which was freely released a couple years ago. On CalWeb, PortalX will not work because the program depends entirely on certain prompts coming back from the Portal Online System to do its thing. Our new interface on CalWeb probably won't even require a PortalX-like program, but more on that later as we get it developed there. At any rate, please enjoy PortalX 1.70 with our compliments in the time remaining that you can use it. It's our gift to you. Harv Laser Amiga Zone Sysop and remember.. *Portal AmigaZone is moving to CalWeb and signup is free! *Call 1-800-509-9322 (24 hrs.), say "Amiga Zone sent me." *See www.amigazone.com for more info. -- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 17:51:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: HOW TO FORWARD YOUR ONLINE EMAIL! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "The Tech Support Guy(tm)" Newsgroups: portal.help.shell,portal.help.ip,portal.help.www,portal.help.misc,portal.help.uucp,portal.help.internet Subject: Re: Email forwarding ...? Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 17:33:27 -0700 Organization: Portal Communications (service) Lines: 52 Message-ID: References: <51t04v$m4u@jobe.shell.portal.com> <153311@cup.portal.com> <52797a$crh@news1.shell> Reply-To: Customer Support Portal NNTP-Posting-Host: homeboy.corp.portal.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Sender: support@homeboy.corp In-Reply-To: <52797a$crh@news1.shell> Xref: shell.portal.com portal.help.shell:266 portal.help.ip:4 portal.help.www:59 portal.help.misc:5 portal.help.uucp:10 portal.help.internet:11 On 24 Sep 1996, Synthon wrote: > Date: 24 Sep 1996 00:15:38 GMT > From: Synthon > Newsgroups: portal.help.shell > Subject: Re: Email forwarding ...? > > Perhaps I missed it somewhere, but are there explicit > instructions posted somewhere that explain how to set up > email forwarding, especially from the Online system? > > Time is running out... > > Synthon > To clarify what is happening: Send mail to emailforward@portal.com. We are currently collecting it and will set up forwarding this week. The current schedule is to have all requested forwarding in place by wednesday. This may slip a day. Please be patient. (that mail to emailforward@portal.com should advise them of the address towhich you want your Portal Online incoming email to be forwarded, from Sept. 30th, 1996 till Dec. 1, 1996. Your online emailbox is the one with the address like: [yourname]@cup.portal.com) We are taking support calls for those who cannot log into their accounts. Excepting those people, we expect you will deal with whatever mail is in your inbox by the end of the month. (What Portal means here is THEY WILL NOT FORWARD ALL THE LETTERS SITTING IN YOUR ONLINE EMAIL FOLDERS. YOU NEED TO EITHER FORWARD THEM TO YOUR NEW ACCOUNT'S EMAIL OR DOWNLOAD THEM TO YOUR AMIGA! THE ONLY THING THAT PORTAL IS GOING TO FORWARD IS NEW, INCOMING EMAIL SENT TO YOUR ONLINE ADDRESS AFTER SEPT. 30TH!!) To clarify current policy: We never intended to imply email would NOT be forwarded to non-Sprint addresses. Email forwarding requests WILL be honored for any valid non-portal address. Starting 10/1/96 you may request we stop mail forwarding but we will not be making any other changes. Questions about this policy may be made here. A clarification will be posted if necessary. Email forwarding will end 12/1/96. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Support Guy(tm) "Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Magic" -- Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 08:34:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: JOIN CALWEB AND IT'S FREE TILL NOV. 1ST 96!! I received this from the Pres./CEO of CalWeb last night. More motivation ahn ever for you to join CalWeb. You not only have NO signup fee to pay, but you won't be billed anything until Nov. 1, 1996!! Please note - I didn't expect the Zone to appear on CalWeb by Oct. 1st and I've mentioned that everywhere to all of you already. This is not some change of plans. We will open there sometime in October. Since your Portal email can be forwarded, be sure to set up email forwarding with Portal before the 30th so I can still reach you! If you already have a CalWeb account, I'll be able to reach you there. Of course, any news will also appear on the Zone's new CalWeb-based web site at http://www.amigazone.com. At any rate, now you can freely join CalWeb and not have to worry about any billing for over a month. Thanks for sticking with the Amiga Zone (and me!) and please join up on CalWeb asap! Now you've got NO reason to wait! Regards, Harv Laser *Portal AmigaZone is moving to CalWeb and signup is free! *Call 1-800-509-9322 (24 hrs.), say "Amiga Zone sent me." *See www.amigazone.com for more info. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 19:46:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Robert Du Gaue To: harv@calweb.com Because I don't fully expect the Amiga Zone to be completely operational by Oct 1st, I've decided to give EVERYONE who joins the Amiga Zone the signup waived and FREE till November 1st. -- Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 10:38:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: AMIGAZONE NIGHTLY CHATS ON IRC STARTING OCT 1, 1996!! Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII AMIGA ZONE LIVE, NIGHTLY CHATS WILL MOVE TEMPORARILY TO IRC ON OCT. 1, 1996 PLEASE read this carefully and remember, if you have any questions or problems, you can email me at harv@amigazone.com (my new CalWeb address) or phone me at 310-378-6746. PLEASE download and save this letter! Once Portal is off the air, your mailbox on Portal will be GONE!! SO SAVE THIS!! -------------------- Because Portal will shut down on Sept. 30th, 1996, we will no longer have the Online System and thus no proprietary "home" to hold our nightly live chats. This will immediately cut into the heart of the concept I've called "The Amiga Zone" for the last 11 years, by trashing our sense of community and camaraderie. SO HERE'S THE SOLUTION: Until the new Amiga Zone opens on CalWeb, sometime in Mid October, (where we will have our own, private live chatting facilities back again) 1996, we'll hold LIVE, NIGHTLY LIVE CHATS on IRC, on ------------------------------- channel name #amigazone on server irc.stealth.net ------------------------ IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. You can get to it from virtually ANY Internet-connected account, anywhere in the world. I know you all have wildly different levels of experience with Internet stuff. Some of you do it in your sleep, while to others, the concept of "TCP/IP stacks" and "Clients" is like some foreign, or even Martian lingo. "What? Huh?" ---------------------- If you have already established a net-connected account elsewhere, and if it's a SHELL account, to get to IRC, all you have to do is log into that account and enter either irc (for screen mode IRC) or irc -d (for tty/line mode IRC which is easier to use) at your account's shell prompt, after you've logged in. This will put you into IRC and whatever server that services uses as its default. "irc " will run IRC in screen mode. "irc -d " will run IRC in TTY or LINE mode. These modes are similar to what we had on the Online system on Portal. I prefer the TTY or LINE mode myself, because then I can open a chat window in my term program to type into. After you see the server's welcome message, you'll just be sitting there. IRC will be waiting for your commands. Here are some basic IRC commands that you'll need to know:: (They all require a leading slash "/" to use or they won't work) /join or /j followed by #channelname will take you to that IRC channel that you want to chat in. OUR CHATS WILL TAKE PLACE ON #amigazone ======================================= That'll be the name of our channel. The channel won't exist unless there is someone in it. When the last person leaves the channel, the channel vanishes. This is how Online System chats work and it's how IRC works too. /nick followed by [new name] will let you change your IRC nickname. That's how you'll appear to everyone else you chat with on IRC. If you don't change your nick, no worries, you will appear as the name you logged into your internet account with. /server followed by [name of server] will connect you to a different IRC server. Some servers are much more reliable and faster than others. I want you to use this command after entering IRC if you want to join in the Amiga Zone chats:: /server irc.stealth.net Stealth is a server in New York which is connected to both North America, and Europe, and I've found it to be very fast and quite reliable when I use IRC. All IRC channel names start with a "#" pound sign (or "hash mark" as it's also called). ---------------------------------- So those are the very basic, important commands you'll need to remember.. /nick [newname] to change your nickname if you want to /server irc.stealth.net to change to that server /join #amigazone to get to our chat channel on IRC. --------------------------------------- So that we can all keep our sanity, please try to meet on channel #amigazone on server irc.stealth.net at our usual times: Monday through Friday we start at 7pm Pacific Time, 10pm Eastern Saturday and Sunday we start at 6pm Pacific Time, 9pm Eastern. I will almost always be on IRC under the name "Harv" so if you want to see if I'm there, just enter /whois Harv once you're on that server (/server irc.stealth.net) However sometimes other people steal my name. It's unavoidable.. there are usually up to 10,000 people using IRC, 24 hours a day and every one of them has to have a unique name. If you don't find me as "Harv" then I'll be "HarvL" The /whois Harv or /whois HarvL information that comes back to your screen will always show me as either hrlaser@netcom.com or harv@calweb.com. If you get anything else back then "Harv" is not me. So try "HarvL" --------------------------------------- For you more advanced folks who have a TCP/IP stack running for your net connections, there are a couple *excellent* Amiga IRC chatting clients. One is called AmIRC by Oliver Wagner. It's a fantastic program and it requires MUI. The other is called GrapeVine by Brian Cerveny. It's almost as good and does not require MUI. They are both in the Amiga Zone library COMMS section. After Portal closes, if you want one of these you'll have to grab them off an Aminet FTP site or some other source so I recommend you grab them here and do it fast. Both of these are graphical GUI clients for Amigas using IRC. If you prefer to join us using an IRC client for Mac or PC, that's fine too but don't ask me what they are. YOU DO NOT NEED A GRAPHICAL CLIENT AT ALL TO USE IRC. But it often makes it more fun if you use one, but don't feel bad if you don't have one or don't want to set one up. In eleven years of chatting on Plink and then Portal, we never had a graphical client to chat with and we got by just fine :-) In these last few days of Portal, if you want to download AmIRC or Grapevine, these GO commands on the online system will take you right to them:: "go 4842.3.13.1193" to go right to AmIRC 1.1 and download it. "go 4842.3.13.953" to go right to GrapeVine and download it. Remember, AmIRC requires MUI. But it's a slicker program to use. I highly recommend it! Harv harv@cup.portal.com harv@amigazone.com harv@calweb.com Home Phone: 310-378-6746 in case you need me! SEE YOU ON IRC, CHANNEL #amigazone SERVER irc.stealth.net STARTING OCTOBER 1ST AND THE USUAL TIMES! SAVE THIS LETTER! DOWNLOAD IT! PRINT IT OUT! DON'T LOSE IT! -- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 08:33:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: URGENT! READ.ME! AND SAVE.ME! AMIGAZONE NEWS! Dear AmigaZone folks:: Portal will shut down on or around midnight, Monday, Sept. 30th. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO A FEW THINGS A.S.A.P. TO AVOID PROBLEMS AND CONFUSION AFTER THAT DATE! ---------------------------------------------------------------- a) make SURE you write to "emailforward@portal.com" and give them your current Portal online email address and the new address to which you want mail forwarded. Even if you don't get much email here, please do this. Portal has arranged so that I'll still be able to reach all of you via this mailing list even after the system shuts down, but ONLY if you've placed your order with emailforward. If you don't do this, your online system email box will be shut and you'll never get my mailings after Sept. 30th! SO PLEASE SET UP FORWARDING!! EMAIL FORWARDING IS FREE AND WILL LAST TILL DEC. 1, 1996! b) email forwarding will *NOT* ship the current contents of your online email folders to a new address. You need to do that yourself, ASAP or else download all your mail to save it! Email forwarding will ONLY move *NEW* incoming mail to your new address. There's no charge for this so be sure to take care of it fast! c) we're progrssing well in getting the entire AmigaZone library over to CalWeb. When the new Zone opens there in mid-october we hope to have the whole library there intact. Or as close to intact as possible. IF THERE'S STUFF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD FROM THE ZONE LIBS, DO IT BEFORE SEPT 30TH. Itll be a couple weeks before the Zone re-opens on CalWeb. d) CalWeb will waive all charges till 11/1/96. You get FREE signup and NO billing till November 1st. Please don't delay in joining CalWeb!! Don't wait for weeks. IT WILL COST YOU NOTHING TO JOIN AND NO BILLING FOR OVER A MONTH!! so please DO IT NOW! It only takes a few minutes. Say "Amiga Zone sent me!" to get this deal! Call CalWeb at 1-800-509-9322 and say THE AMIGA ZONE SENT ME! Even the phone call is FREE. That line is open 24 hours a day! Please don't hesitate. I need a good number of you to join up over there ASAP so I can keep a salary going. If you don't have plastic, you can set up an invoiced account with CalWeb for the same price. -- I made my living income here on Portal for the past five years, (and on Plink for five years before that). Maybe you didn't know that. Now you do. The Zone was THE most heavily used and popular SIG on Portal AND on Plink because I devoted full time to it. A lot of you have voiced appreciation for the AmigaZone. For that I thank you. And I *BEG* you to join CalWeb ASAP because it counts now, more than ever before. Geeze.. I really hate to beg :) but you'll help out the AmigaZone and me more than you can possibly imagine if you join CalWeb immediately. AGAIN, CALWEB WILL COST YOU $0.00. NOTHING. UNTIL NOVEMBER 1ST! So remember: --> set up emailforwarding on Portal !! --> forward or download what's in your mailbox !! --> most importantly, join up on CaWeb !! Thank you Harv Laser Amiga Zone Sysop harv@cup.portal.com harv@amigzone.com http://www.amigazone.com I'm at 310-378-6746 if you need me. -- Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 08:28:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Harv Laser Subject: HURRY UP FOLKS! EMAIL FORWARD AND JOIN CALWEB!! Hi.. Portal will only be around a couple more days. :( You need to do these things a.s.a.p. if you want to support the Amiga Zone and see if flourish and grow at its new home on CalWeb: -> Call CalWeb and sign-up as soon as possible. My profuse thanks to those of you who already have! If you haven't yet, you will not be billed _anything_ till Nov 1., 1996. Signup is free and the whole month of Oct. is FREE! The Amiga Zone will re-open on CalWeb sometime in Mid-October but we need you to sign-up quickly to prove to CalWeb that the Amiga Zone is worth their priorities and resources. If a LOT of you join quickly they'll know how serious you are about seeing continued online support for the Amiga! Amiga magazines have vanished. Online resources have dwindled. DON'T LET PORTAL'S SHUTDOWN CRIPPLE US! I promise you the BEST online Amiga support ever.. just as we've done here for the past five years, but, in turn, we need you to show YOUR support! So please call CalWeb at 1-800-509-9322 and join ASAP! Remember to say the magic words: "The Amiga Zone sent me" to get your free signup and free month of October. (This offer is good indefinitely, but October only lasts one month ;) -> SETUP EMAIL FORWARDING WITH PORTAL! THIS TOO IS FREE! Portal will forward email from both your Online Systme and Shell mailboxes FREE to ANY address you provide until Dec. 1, 1996. Just send email to "emailforward@portal.com" and tell them where to forward your online and shell email and sign the letter with your full name so they'll know who you are (if you're using a pseudonym online). If you do this, you will be able to continue to receive my mass-email news to this Amiga Zone mailing list even after Portal closes! -> TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES! If you have a user group, grab the "Amiga Zone is Moving" flyer from the new uploads on the online system (go 4842.3.72;p t e) or on the Zone Web Site at http://www.amigazone.com and dump it to any Postscript printer and hand it out at your group! Post our press release (available in the same places) on your local Amiga BBSes. Tell everyone you know! Help get your friends online on CalWeb to join us there for the New AmigaZone! Now, more than ever, we need to keep this valuable resource going, to show the world that the Amiga is still the BEST computer, owned and used by the BEST computer owners! I guess that's it for now.. I'll be mailing you a couple more times before Portal goes off the air. But for now, the most important thing you can do to keep the Amiga Zone alive is to sign up at CalWeb! *Portal AmigaZone is moving to CalWeb and signup is free! *Call 1-800-509-9322 (24 hrs.), say "Amiga Zone sent me." *See www.amigazone.com for more info. Regards, Harv Laser Amiga Zone Sysop/Moderator -----